The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-12-17
A STORY SUPPLEMENTED BY CHRIS
TIANITY.

Those who have read that powerful
and unique story, "Dr. Jekyll and Mr..
HYDE" cannot have failed to recognize
the truth it illustrates, while they have
rejected the story itself. Literally true,
Of course it cannot be. It's details are
incredible, impossible. And yet there
is world of truth in it. The two char
acters, DIR. Jekyll and Mr.. Hyde, were
one and the same person. The individ-
uality was one, but the nature was
dual One was good and the other bad.
When one tendency was in the ascend
ant, every thought and impulse was
good, divine. The man was saint.
When the other had control, all was
bad. Depravity was incarnate. The
man was devil. And so different
were the two phases, the different char
acters, opposite poles of the same mag
net, that no one ever mistook one for
the other, or recognized the two as be-
longing to the same personality.
The idea so powerfully wrought out
in this story, which every one should
read, is not original with Mr.. Steven
son. Our own sweetest poet has
expressed something like the same
thought in these lines:
sour little lives are kept in equipoise
By struggles of two opposite desires;
The struggle of the impulse that enjoys,
With the more noble impulse that aspires"
And ages before Longfellow lived,
Xenophon said: Certainly, I must
have two souls, for plainly, it is not
one and the same which is both evil and
good, nor which loves honorable and
base conduct, and at the same time
wishes to do thing and not to do it.
Plainly then there are two souls, and
when the good one prevails, then it
does good and when the evil one pre-
dominates, then it does evil"
These are but attempts at stating a
great truth, older than either the poet or
the Greek, which was long ago express
ed by Paul, when he said (Romans
vii. 15), "For that which I work out.
1 approve not; since practice not that
which would, but what 1 hate, that
L do. But if do what l would not,
assent to the law that it is good and
now it is no more that work, but sin
that dwells in me. For know that in
me, that is in my flesh, dwells no good
thing; for to will is present with me,
but not to work that which is good
For the good that would, do not,
but the evil that 1 would not, that 1
practice. But if what would not, that
do, it is no more l that work, but sin
dwelling in me. 1 find then the law
that evil is present with me when l
would do right. For l delight in the
law of God, according to the inner man,
but perceive different law in my
members, warning against the law of
my mind, and making me captive to
the law of sin existing in my members"
And even before Paul, the wise
preacher said: 81 have seen princes on
foot, and beggars on horseback" he
meant that he had seen the noble ma
ture of man uncrowned, dethroned, and
the animal part of him usurping the
scepter, to which it had no right; the
slave leading the prince as captive.
We all feel this conflict. The human
heart is the arena in which the contend
ing powers wage an unceasing feud.
Sometimes the better impulse rules
too often the lower proelivity bears
sway. This warfare is waged in every
human soul, but the story of ''Pr. Je-
kyll and Mr.. HYDE" and the poet, and
the philosopher all err in two respects.
l. In overlooking the fact that these
two powers are not of equal ability,
and ~ in failing to see that the infe-
rior is to be destroyed.
1. Observe, that while Paul gives to
the lower force-the animal nature-a
terrible ascendency and power, he gives
to the spiritual the superiority. The
animal is only an encumbrance, the
spiritual is the real self. Paul declares
that it is not the Ego-the L, that
originates sin. 1t consents to sin,
and so it is pGrticeps criminis, but all its
native instincts, its tendencies are to-
ward the gOod,-GOd is the center to-
ward which it gravitates. 81 delight
in the law of God" he says,ii"but the
law of the members" the animal nature
is the cause of all my reflections from
the right. But all the time it swerves
me, see and struggle toward the bet
ter way.
2. Nothing is palmer than that Paul